Stop Motion Animation with Clay and Sell on Blockchain! (Grades 3-7)
Dates: 4/7-5/5 (Thursdays; 5 weeks)
Time: 4PM – 5PM PST /6PM-7 PM CDT/7PM-8PM EST (60 minutes/class)
Class description
Students will each make a Stop Motion Animation Film. They will then publish and sell their films at the NextGen Edu store on a Blockchain website, which is the world's first and largest NFT marketplace!
This class is a condensed version of a semster-long digital media class, which includes highly interactive online classes and hands-on offline projects. They will also learn about Blockchain/NFT digital art.
Students will Create and Publish:
- A stop motion animation film made with a smartphone
- Claymation characters
- A story of their chosen topics (e.g. Dungeon & Dragon, Superhero, Nature-themed, or anything else!)
- A description for their films as NFT digital artists and entrepreneurs
- Publish and sell their animation film at the NextGen Edu store on a Blockchain/NFT website (Students do NOT need a digital wallet for this. All transactions will be transparent and published on the website.)
Students will learn:
The core activity for each week is a specific topic from the process of moviemaking.
o Week 1 – Introductions & Course goals. What are the kinds of animations? What makes Claymation different? How animation is made, explaining frames. Watch Samples of Claymation
o Week 2 – Explain the 12 principles of animation, Technology demo/introduction using the app Stop Motion Studio.
o Week 3 – Story. What makes a story: beginning, middle, end, setting, character. Emphasis on what makes for an excellent short story, keeping it simple but effective. "What If" Pixar technique to tell stories.
o Week 4 – Sculpt and animate your character.
o Week 5 – Watch films (Final reflection of the course) and learn about Blockchain/NFT digital art.
o Post-class: Publish and Sell on the world's first and largest NFT marketplace!
Homework projects:
In every class, there is an assignment for the students to reinforce the core activity.
Class One: Come up with a character for the first activity, a blank world.
Class Two: Making Clay Expressive
Class Three: Come up with an idea for your animated movie. Name Animation project.
Class Four: Animate your film. Add music, audio, and final touches.
Class Five: Finish your film and turn it in!
o Post-class: Write a description of your film, set price (e.g. in ethereum), and then publish and sell at the NextGen Edu store on the world's first and largest NFT marketplace as a digital artist!
Instructor & Curriculum
https://www.nextgeneducationus.org/teachers
Mr. Gus is an experienced Video Editor and Videographer adept at meeting client needs throughout the entirety of the film process. He is a teaching artist and film instructor for Austin Film Festival. He has taught the use of smartphones or tablets as a tool for filmmaking. The process covers the idea, preproduction, production, filming, and editing.
Curriculum co-designed by Mr. Gus, Dr. Jiang Pu and an STEM and Blockchain expert.
Supply List
Students must own a smartphone or a Smart Tablet for the class. I recommended editing software that is free and can be downloaded from the appropriate website.
- Box of clay from Amazon for about $11 (direct link)
Have some kind of plastic table cover or butcher paper to protect the table while the student is modeling. Clay can leave the mark of color on the table.
- Construction paper
- Scissors
- Scotch tape
- Glue stick
- Pencils
- toothpicks
Class size
4-8 kids. Small class size, highly interactive and individualized.
(Age 8-13)